Moose Milligan

It’s remarkably juvenile, will probably ruffle some feathers and therefore I support it.

He was great tonight, especially after a 30 pitch first inning.

I’m old enough to remember this off-season when some of you were absolutely positive that Mateo’s defense was going to regress.

Totally forgot this was a 4 game set. Updated the OP, TBD vs. Irvin. Still think we should take 3/4 from them.

4/10: Sears vs. Gibson 4/11: Muller vs. G-Rod 4/12: Waldichuck vs. Kremer 4/13: TBD vs. Irvin Part of me thinks we should take 2/3 from the A's as they're not the most talented group around, but they're also throwing 3 lefties at us this series so who knows WTF that'll do.

It’s between us and Boston. I expected Tampa to be better this year but not this good so far.

I get it, I agree.

Sort of. I mean, playing in the outfield, yeah. But if Vavra vs. Stowers is the comp, it's clear that they're preferring guys who have a better plate approach and have positional versatility. I'm under no illusion that Vavra is a great defender, btw.

Right, so a 103 OPS+ last year and a 107 OPS+ in his vaunted 2021 campaign....or 3% and 7% better than the average big league hitter across two seasons. I'm not sure that 5% average of being better than league average is worth a vigorous defense, but hey, whatever makes you happy.

I agree, I'd prefer to have had Hays in Norfolk last year to see the results, too.

Cause that was two years ago and not as recent?

I'm going off what he did last year and this year, hotshot.

I mean, .715 and a whiff rate that's in line with what Hays brings to the table shouldn't be too hard to replicate.

Well then.

I bet Stowers could put up a .715 OPS with a lot of strikeouts and middling defense.

Tony, I don't disagree with any of it. Except seeing Hays in CF. Woof. I'm just saying, I don't see Stowers as an automatic upgrade over the two. That's it, that's all.

Hays is a ****ing 4th outfielder.

That's fair, and I don't disagree. Like I said, I'd prefer him over Hays/Santander and I agree that those guys aren't elite but neither is Stowers. My argument is that I don't necessarily see Stowers as a future piece. For that matter, I don't see Hays/Santander as future pieces either...since I view them all as fungible, I don't get the outrage, outside the fact that Stowers is the one with upside. If I had to guess, I would assume that the Orioles don't want another strikeout machine in the lineup. Hays and Santander whiff a lot, I'm wondering if the Orioles think they can get Stowers to work on his contact issues at Norfolk.

Maybe Stowers is overrated on here. Is that not a possibility? Don't get me wrong, I'm over Santander and I'm over Hays. I'd prefer to see Stowers over either of them, but I don't think the talent gap between the three is necessarily that huge, which makes the outrage over the treatment of Stowers a bit more perplexing. Sure, these three players have different skill sets and yes, I'd agree that Stowers has more upside since he's younger and Santander/Hays are what they are at this point. But people are acting like the Orioles just demoted the second coming of Mickey Mantle, that Stowers is heads and shoulders above the other two. And like I said, I'm tired of Hays and Santander but I'm not sure that Stowers is some kind of automatic upgrade that only people on the OH can see and that the Orioles management is completely oblivious to.

I'm fairly confident Franchy Cordero won't be the next Jose Bautista.

I think Gunnar should have to show that he’s a better defender than Urias/Mateo before being handed the keys to a position. If he’s the better talent from a defensive perspective, prove it. Can we just skip ahead to the part where we whine about his batting suffering because of where he stands on the infield dirt not being consistent?

Henderson hasn’t looked like a GG dude to me, either.

You’re so considerate.

Oh crap, should I pretend to care about the Pirates?

Immaculate inning here for Nestor? Why not?